Smart jewellery concept design helps monitor blood glucose levels

Instead of frequent finger pricks to analyse blood glucose levels, a student from England has designed an earring that would track blood glucose levels via the earlobe. The Sense Glucose Earring (Sense) would pierce the earlobe and pulse high-frequency radio waves through the surrounding tissue as a way of measuring blood sugar levels. The earring can deliver real-time readings via a smartphone and would run on rechargeable batteries.

Young people diagnosed with the condition do experience a distressing level of stigma and can be twice as likely to have poor glycemic control, which leads to further health problems, even though type 1 diabetes is out of their control, said creator Tyra Kozlow, a recent product design graduate from the University of Huddersfield, UK.

Kozlow added that thisdesign could better help sufferers of type 1 diabetes including children discreetly yet responsibly manage their condition.

Sense will be presented at the finals of the 2020 Global Grad Show, aimed at purposeful innovation through design and technology,without the constraints of commercial interests. The event has previously conjured up everything from wheel hubs that double as laundries for long-haul truck drivers to biodegradable coffins that boost the fertility of the soil.

Although Sense is similar to the idea of using smartphone cameras to measure blood-sugar levels, where light is shone onto the tissue to pick up on blood volume changes; whether the concept makes it to market either in its current form or undergoes a few reinventions first, Kozlow believes the potential for a glucose-monitoring earring is there.

“I hope Sense will help teenagers feel more in control of their diabetes and feel more encouraged to manage their condition around their friends because it’s a piece of smart technology they will be using,” she said.

“By making the monitoring process as easy as say, measuring your heart rate on a smartwatch, I hope this will lessen the stigma, so it becomes much more a part of everyday life.”

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Tags: Blood glucose, monitor, Smart jewellery, smartphone

Category: Technology & Devices